Welcome to the Ranch!

Kids of Cross Creek Cattle Company

Most people do not live in rural areas anymore.  A complete switch has taken place.  More people now live in urban areas.  Living in the country has its advantages.  It also has disadvantages.  Like everything in life, you have to weigh both.

My five children have lived on Cross Creek Cattle Company for most if not all of their lives.  They have chores that most kids their age do not have.  They take turns milking our goats.  They feed our chickens, sheep, goats, rabbits, dogs, and cats.  They can grow and harvest vegetables.  They can catch and clean a fish.  They can work cattle.  Depending on their ages, my children are either quite experienced in these areas or they are in training.

All of them are raised to avoid cow patties as they stroll through the pasture.  They know to watch for snakes.  They know where the barbed wire fences are even if the sun makes the wires seem invisible.  They can identify poison ivy regardless of the season.

When people visit the ranch, they are quickly given a crash course in the potential hazards.  Likewise when we travel to urban areas, my children receive a much different training.  Don’t talk to strangers.  Look both ways before crossing the street.

I thought it would be interesting to hear from my children today.  I asked each of them, “What is your favorite thing about living on a ranch?”  The following are their answers.

Clayton said, “I love hunting deer in December.”  He is a great shot.  Clayton also loves observing the plentiful wildlife throughout the year.  Watching the deer is his favorite.

China Berry tree in autumn.

Kyla said, “I love watching the colors change on the leaves.”  About the only trees that change from green to brilliant color are the China Berry trees.  She went on to say that she loves being able to observe God’s creation everyday.

Jake responded, “I love being able to work with the horses all the time.”  He loves horses.  He even writes his own blog about horses called Cross Creek Horsemanship.

Isaac said, “Riding horses!”  He sure loves to ride.

Andrew is too little to answer, but he also loves to ride a horse.  My guess is that he enjoys tractor rides even more.

Well, the kids have spoken.  They love living on Cross Creek Cattle Company.  And, they have different reasons.  I love the fact that they are growing up on a working ranch.  They have so many opportunities to learn skills and enjoy the outdoors.  Living in a rural area has its perks.

Lane is cauterizing the horn while Clayton hold its head and Jake stands ready with medicine.

It was a beautiful Scottish day at Cross Creek Cattle  Company.  The overcast sky and the cool day was highlighted with constant drizzle that dampened your hair, clothing, etc.  This of course made everything feel even colder.

My immediate family stood in the barn with my father discussing the day’s plans.  Sorting, de-horning, branding, vaccinating, and castrating were the items on the agenda.  We divided up the jobs and got to work.

We are all experienced cowboys having worked cattle for most of our lives.  Even my eight-year old son is competent in many areas of cattle work.  My dad is the most experienced of us all.  He worked side-by-side with his grandfather since he could walk.  Isn’t funny how cyclical life can be?  Here my dad was working alongside his grandchildren.

This particular kind of cattle work is not for the faint at heart.  You are going to see blood.  You are going to smell the scent of burning flesh.  It is one of the most unpleasant parts of living on a working ranch.

Daddy is branding. Clay is holding the vaccines waiting for his turn to work.

It is easier than in the past.  We have squeeze chutes that hold the calf still while you work on them.  You do not have to rope, tackle, and throw the calf.  We have electric branding irons and a cauterizing instrument.  We do not have to keep a fire going with metal brands sitting in the fire until they have red-hot tips.

We do give two vaccinations.  Each calf receives an 8-Way Blackleg and IBR4 vaccine.  The first prevents a fatal disease called Blackleg.  The most susceptible calves are ones thriving with great weight gain by eating nutritious grass.  A certain spore in the ground causes this disease and it is completely preventable with the vaccine.  The latter prevents the Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) disease.  It is a transmittable disease via contact.  We have never had any of our cattle with this illness, but there are other herds nearby.  Occasionally we find a stray cow in our herd from a neighbor’s pasture.  Both vaccines are ones that we deem necessary to prevent for the health of our herd.

We brand the cows we intend to keep.  Believe it or not, but there are still cattle rustlers.  People steal cattle and usually take them directly to the sale.  A brand is one sure way to prove that a cow belongs to you.  You have to register your brand with the state.  Our brand is a C with a squiggly line beneath it.  The C stands for the alliteration in the name of our ranch.  The line symbolizes the creeks that cross the ranch.

We de-horn for safety purposes.  Our cattle are docile and easy-going.  Regardless of the naturally good disposition, it is always safer to work around cows without sharp-tipped horns.  There are several ways to remove horns.  If you act when the calf is very young, you can scoop out the horns.  You can pay for a veterinarian to perform cosmetic surgery in a sense to remove the horns.  You can also remove the tips.  The horns will not continue to grow so the cow will have blunt nubs.  We chose the do the latter this time.  It is important to cauterize the bleeding because a cow can lose a lot of blood if you do not act.

It was a successful day.  We worked together as a team.  Nobody got hurt.  The cattle are doing fine.  Cross Creek Cattle Company is literally a family-owned and operated ranch.  We are teaching the next generation so that high quality cattle and grass fed beef can continue for generations to come.

One of the rites of passage in a young man’s life in Texas, and other parts of the country, is killing his first deer.  My son, Clayton, began hunting with his PawPaw with binoculars.  He was in kindergarten at the time.  He would dress up in camoflague and get up extremely early in the morning.  Together PawPaw and Clayton would sit as still as possible and wait for the chance to see one of the most beautiful of all forest animals.

After many years of “patience” practice, Clayton proved himself capable of sitting still.  When he was 10-years old, he was allowed to hunt on Cross Creek Cattle Company.  He killed his first buck.  It was a nice-sized spike.

Every hunting season since then, Clayton has proudly supplied venison for his family.  This year on his first day of hunting, Clayton brought home a big deer.  It is a eight-point buck.  It was a good-sized buck.

We do not have the trophy deer that draw hunters to South Texas.  White-tailed deer thrive in our woods.  Their population is continually increasing each year.  I have seen more bucks this year in the pastures, roadsides, and woods than any other time of my life.  It is nice to see them thriving as they are an important part of our eco-system.

Our family enjoys eating venison in a variety of ways.  We smoke the hams.  We make pan and link sausage.  We fry the backstrap and tenders like chicken-fried steak.  We pound out strips of the shoulder and grill with jalapenos, bacon, and cream cheese.  We almost eat venison year round.

Clayton takes great pride, as he should, in providing wild game for his family.  We count on him every year to help feed our big family.  It is one of the ways that enables us to strive for self-sufficiency.  We try to live off the land as much as possible.  As this hunting season is concerned, Clayton brought home the venison.

Andrew DeHaven

John Wayne starred in a movie titled, “Cowboys,” in which a group of young boys become men.  They did not grow much older on the trail, but they did come of age.  By being entrusted with responsibility, each boy developed a great work ethic.  Each boy returned home a different person as the trials of life shaped them into men.

I personally think that our society is full of overgrown boys.  Men-sized boys who are more interested in self-gratification and the here and now without the vision to see into their future.  I see this problem not only with males, but with females as well.  Few seem to look long-term.  We, as a society, seem very short-sighted.

I also think that this problem permeates all areas of life.  Parents seem to wait expectantly for the time when their children finally leave home.  They are tired of having to provide for them, clean up their mistakes, etc.  I do not think that our society places enough emphasis on how important ones job as a parent is.  In fact we seem to demean anyone who makes financial sacrifices as they dedicate their lives to their family.  How many times have you heard or said yourself, “Oh, I am just a mom (dad).”

Isaac DeHaven

We are a little old-fashioned at Cross Creek Cattle Company.  And, that is just fine with us.  We purposely spend a lot of time together as a family.  Not just our immediate family, but our extended family as well.  We invest our time, talents, and energy to operate a cattle and horse ranch in the 21st century.  It is not for the money.  Ranches do not make the money they once did.  We do it for the love of it.  We love working together to accomplish something.  We love having a common purpose.  We love the work ethic it takes to run the ranch.  It surely does not run itself.

As a mom, I want my four sons and daughter to grow up with a vision.  To grow into their adult bodies, wise beyond their years.  I want them to experience life and learn from it.  I want them to know responsibility.  I want them to be prepared to be able to survive on their own.  I look forward to the day when they leave of their own accord to make their own mark on the world, as men and women in the true sense of the word.

Therefore, it is no accident that when we worked cows this morning that all of our kids were there.  Jake helped Lane sort the calves.  Clayton and I worked different gates.  Kyla watched the “babies” Isaac and Andrew in the barn where they still felt part of the action.

When I deemed it perfectly safe, I allowed the two boys to come into the round pen and stand on the catwalk adjacent to the chute.  We needed to load calves to take to the sale.  Each boy had a cow working stick like everyone else.  Isaac could barely see the calves over the protective wooden wall of the chute, but he smiled as he yelled, “Get on outta here cows!  Yah!”

His smile said everything.  He felt a part of the team.  He helped load the cows.  He cannot wait until we have to work together again.  Even Andrew, who just sat on the catwalk holding a stick, said, “Yah, cow!  Yah, cow!”  At three years and nineteen months of age, my little boys are becoming cowboys, who will one day become men.

On Saturday, October 11th, the Holliday family of Cross Creek Cattle Company hosted a trail ride for the Grimes County Jr. Deputy Sherriff Mounted Posse.  Mr. and Mrs. Holliday as well as Lane, Kyla, and Jake DeHaven worked very hard to blaze and clean up trails.  Lane had also tried to shred all the pastures.

The amount of rainfall we have received lately made it impossible to get all the shredding done.  Every time Lane tried to shred, the water would begin rising out of the soil under the weight of the tractor tires.  The last thing we want is for our pastures to be full of ruts.  Therefore not much shredding occurred.

At one point Lane pulled a log out of a pathway only to be instructed to put it back.  It turns out that my dad, Kenton Holliday, had spent a bit of time carefully trimming off any branches.  He intended the log to stay in order to make the trail more challenging and interesting for the riders.

The day before the trail ride and meeting the weather was nice.  It was sunny and cool.  We were hoping that the weather would hold and make a perfect day for horseback riding.  I made brownies and rice krispie treats for dessert. The Hollidays purchased drinks and provided cakes.  The day of the event we went over early to help set-up.

Later we arrived at the barn to saddle up and ride the horses through the creeks to the cabin.  Our plan was to wait there for the trail ride to begin.  Just as the last saddle was being tightened up on the fourth horse, it started to rain.  Soon after, our phone rang and the trail ride had been canceled.  However, we were still having a meeting of the Posse at the cabin.

I promise you that nobody was more disappointed than the Hollidays and the DeHavens.  We had worked so hard and were really looking forward to people enjoying our ranch.  We have creeks, trails, pastures, woods, logs in the paths, and more.  It really is the perfect place to ride your horse.

About 30 people showed up for the meeting.  I felt this was a pretty good turn-out especially considering there was rain and no ride.  The Imhoff ranch donated food, which we enjoyed after the meeting.  Despite the weather, the Posse had a good get-together.  Now we are trying to find a date to re-schedule the trail ride.

The other evening the Grimes County Jr. Deputy Sheriff’s Mounted Posse threw its annual end of the year banquet.  A catering company served hamburgers and all the fixin’s, beans, and peach cobbler.  A guest speaker from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo informed us about the opportunities offered by the organization.  She also made us laugh by listing off the ten most important things she had learned from her horse.

Jake, Kyla, and Clayton with their medals and belt buckles.

We said goodbye to one member who is beginning the next phase of her life at Texas A&M University.  Other members were recognized and given awards for their service.  Clayton, Kyla, and Jake all received a medal for completing their first year as members.  Kyla and Jake were both recognized for being top-sellers at a plant sale fundraiser in Navasota.  Additionally, all three were awarded fancy belt buckles for perfect attendance at all Posse events.

The belt buckles are huge!  They are nice, too.  Even each child’s name is on his/her buckle.  Kyla is going to need a wider belt to hold the buckle properly.  When Jake wears his new belt buckle, he receives a lot of attention.  People remark on its size.  So, can you grow into a belt buckle?  I think, they can.

Until then, all the kids are proud of them and are looking forward to another year of Posse events.  In fact, Cross Creek Cattle Company is hosting a trail ride for the Posse in October.  We all have some work to do before the ride.  Trails need to be cleaned up.  It is going to be fun and we are all looking forward to it.

Kyla riding hands free.

All five of my children love to ride horses.  Because of their ages, the oldest three are much more accomplished riders.  As I watch them ride now, I am so proud of how far they have come since their first day of riding.  If you have ever seen a first-time rider sit the saddle, you know what I mean.  Riders that are stiff in the saddle.  Riders that hang on to the saddle horn and reins like their life depends on it.  In so doing, riders that are too rough on the horse’s mouth and/or send it mixed messages through the bit.

My children were not quite so rigid as I described.  I attribute this to the fact that they rode bareback for a month before sitting in a saddle, but even then you could hardly call them relaxed as they sat in the saddle.  Through the guidance of my father and his wife, my children have learned to move with the horse regardless of the gait.  While walking, they sit in pure relaxation.  While trotting, they post.  While loping, they sit relaxed, but alert.

Riding bareback really helped them learn to move with the horse.  There is nothing separating the rider from the horse; therefore, it is much easier to move as one.  Still there has to be a certain level of comfort and trust between the rider and the horse.  Groundwork really helps the two to get to know one another.  Longeing, round-penning, etc. are all methods to help develop trust and comfort as well as a sense of respect for each other.

Jake also riding without hands.

While riding my children also do some desensitizing exercises.  As they keep their horse moving, they are also leaning back and touching its hindquarters or leaning forward and patting its neck.  This exercise helps make the horse less sensitive to movement on its back while building confidence in the rider.  You want to ride a horse that you are not always worried will jump out from under you because you leaned to the side.

In the end all these exercises and techniques develop a partnership between the rider and his/her horse.  They become friends.  They both look forward to their next time together.  Now that my oldest children share this level of comfort with their own ability and their horse, I often hear, “Look, Ma, No hands!”

This is the last installment of the Horsemanship Camp series.  The ranch sent my three oldest to the Texas Charm School and Cowboy College. Cody Johansson runs the camp.  Her goal is to empower youth with horsemanship.  I know that all three of my children gained knowledge, skills, and confidence.  They had five great days at her place in Field Store, Texas.

Today Clayton, my thirteen year old, will be demonstrating longeing and the human currycomb.  Clayton is becoming an accomplished rider, but has learned that ground work is just as important.  He enjoys working with his horse, Roxie, at the ranch.

I hope you enjoy watching him work with a horse named Mike.

This week is Jake’s turn to show off the skills and knowledge that he acquired at Texas Charm School and Cowboy College.  It is located in Field Store, Texas and operated by Cody Johansson.  Jake fell in love with her pony named Boudreaux.  He said, “It feels great to be as tall as a horse.”

If you read the articles from this blog, then you already probably feel that you know Jake.  He is a cowboy through and through.  Jake is eight years old now and going into the 3rd grade.  He is happiest when he is outside doing something with his hands.  Horses have been a great outlet for him.  He has to learn to be relatively calm and quiet around the barn, which is slightly difficult for boys his age.  He also has to be focused.

I hope you enjoy watching Jake with Boudreaux.  I think that you will see how much Jake enjoys being with this pony.

Cross Creek Cattle Company sent my three oldest children to Texas Charm School and Cowboy College last week.  The instructor is Cody Johansson, who wants to empower children through horsemanship.  My children had a great time and learned a lot about horses.  For the next three weeks, I will be posting a video of each of my children as they showcase what they learned at camp.  Ladies are first, so here is Kyla.

Kyla just turned ten years old last week.  She loves horses and has been working with them seriously for a little over a year.  Kyla attended the horsemanship camp hoping to gain more confidence working with such big, powerful animals.  I think that as you watch the video there will be no doubt that she is confident.  Enjoy!